The Cisco UCS X-Series chassis is engineered to be adaptable and flexible. The following figure shows that the Cisco UCS X9508 chassis has only a power distribution midplane.

This innovative design provides fewer obstructions for better airflow. For I/O connectivity, vertically oriented compute nodes intersect with horizontally oriented fabric modules, allowing the chassis to support future fabric innovations. The superior packaging of the Cisco UCS X9508 chassis enables larger compute nodes and provides more space for actual compute components, such as memory, GPU, drives, and accelerators. Improved airflow through the chassis enables support for higher-power components, and more space allows future thermal solutions (such as liquid cooling) without limitations.

The Cisco UCS X9508 7RU chassis has the following characteristics:

• Eight flexible slots: You can house a combination of compute nodes and a pool of future I/O resources that may include GPU accelerators, disk storage, and nonvolatile memory.

• Two Intelligent Fabric Modules (IFMs): These modules connect the chassis to upstream Cisco UCS 6500 Series Fabric Interconnects, enabling a lossless and deterministic converged fabric to connect all blades and chassis together.

• Two slots for Cisco UCS X-Series fabric modules: These slots can flexibly connect the compute nodes with I/O devices.

• Six power supply units (PSUs): Each PSU provides 2800 W of power.

The Cisco UCS X210c M7 Compute Node is the second generation of compute nodes to be integrated in the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System. It delivers performance, flexibility, and optimization for deployments in data centers, cloud, and remote sites. This enterprise-class server offers market-leading performance, versatility, and density without compromising workloads. Up to eight compute nodes can reside in the 7RU Cisco UCS X9508 Server Chassis, offering one of the highest densities of compute, I/O, and storage.

The following Cisco UCS X210c M7 features are important for AI and ML workloads:

• CPU: Up to two 4th-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors with up to 60 cores for each processor.

• Memory: Up to 8 TB of main memory with DDR5 memory.

• Optional front mezzanine GPU module: The Cisco UCS front mezzanine GPU module is a passive PCIe Generation 4.0 front mezzanine option with support for up to two U.2 Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) drives and two half-height, half-length (HHHL) GPUs.

• Cisco UCS PCI Mezz card for Cisco UCS X-Fabric: This card can occupy the server's mezzanine slot at the bottom rear of the chassis. Its I/O connectors link to Cisco UCS X-Fabric modules and enable connectivity to the Cisco UCS X440p PCIe Node.

• Cisco UCS VIC 15000 Series adapters: These adapters support the use of mLOM slot to enable 100-Gbps connectivity.

Cisco UCS X410c M7 Compute Node delivers the best performance, versatility, and density for a wide range of mission-critical enterprise applications, memory-intensive applications, and bare-metal and virtualized workloads. Powered by the Cisco Intersight cloud operations platform, it is an adaptable system that can support enterprise workloads and provide a consolidation platform. It is a system that is engineered for the future so you can embrace emerging technologies while reducing the risk of obsolescence.

The Cisco UCS X410c M7 Compute Node is the first four-socket 4th-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors computing device to be integrated in the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System. Up to four compute nodes or two compute nodes and two GPU nodes can reside in the 7RU Cisco UCS X9508 Server Chassis to offer high performance and efficiency gains for a wide range of mission-critical enterprise applications, memory-intensive applications, and bare-metal and virtualized workloads.

The following Cisco UCS X410c M7 features are important for AI and ML workloads:

• CPU: Four 4th-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors with up to 60 cores for each processor.

• Memory: Up to 16 TB of main memory DDR5 memory.

• Storage: Up to six hot-pluggable solid-state drives (SSDs), or NVMe 2.5-inch drives with a choice of enterprise-class Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) or pass-through controllers, and up to two M.2 Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) or NVMe drives with an optional hardware RAID.

• Cisco UCS PCI Mezz card for Cisco UCS X-Fabric: This card can occupy the server's mezzanine slot at the bottom rear of the chassis. Its I/O connectors link to Cisco UCS X-Fabric modules and enable connectivity to the Cisco UCS X440p PCIe Node.

• Cisco UCS VIC 15000 Series adapters: These adapters support the use of mLOM slot to enable 100-Gbps connectivity.

The Cisco UCS X440p Gen4 PCIe Node is a new node type that is compatible with the Cisco UCS X9508 chassis. It can be connected to Cisco UCS X210c and X410c compute nodes in the Cisco UCS X9508 chassis to enable GPU accelerator support using Cisco UCS 9416 X-Fabric modules.

The Cisco UCS X440p PCIe Node enables integration of a PCIe resource node into the Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System. Up to four PCIe nodes can be housed in the 7RU Cisco UCS X9508 Chassis, each paired with a compute node. This arrangement offers up to four GPUs for a Cisco UCS X210c and X410c Compute Node with Cisco UCS X-Fabric technology.

The following GPU options are supported on the Cisco UCS X440p PCIe Card.

The Cisco UCS VIC 15000 Series is designed for Cisco UCS X-Series M6 and M7 Blade Servers, Cisco UCS B-Series M6 Blade Servers, and Cisco UCS C-Series M6 and M7 Rack Servers. The adapters can support 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, 100-, and 200-Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). They incorporate the Cisco next-generation converged network adapter (CNA) technology and offer a comprehensive feature set that provides investment protection for future feature software releases. They enable a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host. These interfaces can be dynamically configured as either NICs or host bus adapters (HBAs). Some adapters also incorporate secure boot technology.

When a Cisco UCS rack server with a VIC 15000 Series adapter is connected to a fabric interconnect (Cisco UCS 6536 or 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects), the VIC is provisioned using Cisco Intersight Managed Mode (IMM) or Cisco UCS Manager policies. When a Cisco UCS rack server with VIC is connected to a top-of-rack (ToR) switch, such as the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series, the VIC is provisioned through the Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) or Cisco Intersight policies for a Cisco UCS standalone server.